Midtown: the Brand
Posted on May 5, 2010 – 8:36 PM | by OldManFoster
We were a bit perplexed when we got a press release announcing that the new ‘Brand Identity’ of Midtown Sacramento would be unveiled last week. We were even more perplexed when we actually saw it.
It’s not that the logo isn’t nice. It’s well designed, I’d even say it’s visually ‘catchy’, as far as that goes. The scribble reminds me of ’50s Italian abstract sculpture more than anything, so Hot Italian was probably stoked.
But I truly can’t imagine the thought process that went into choosing ‘Go Your Own Way’ as a tag line, since A) Fleetwood Mac will probably sue us; B) who thought it was a good idea to associate Midtown with a rock group more famous for cocaine addiction than anything else? Was this just a tip-of-the-hat to that certain uber-successful Midtown businessman who made his bones as a coke dealer back in the ’70s?
Whatever. I’m inclined to ‘roll with it’ as local style-maker and boutique owner Olivia Coelho suggested in her comments on Heckasac. It’s done, it cost an ass-load of money (don’t even ask, it will make you so angry your teeth will hurt), and it could have been way worse.
Rob Kerth, quoted in the Business Journal, suggested plenty of uses for the new logo. “The logo will show up on t-shirts, banners and window stickers the association is making available to businesses. We’ll think of some other clever uses along the way.”
Reader Marion Millin sent us her suggestions for other clever uses. We thought they were too good not to share:
Hire Ground Chuck to draw the logo in chalk on the sidewalk in front of participating businesses
Hold hop scotch competitions and let kids compete for whose game is craziest
Print the new logo on meal tickets with prices, tax and totals artfully spread on the “grid”
Tell people it’s an old Gold Rush symbol used by miners to hide location of their claim
Hire Midtown Hipsters to get tattooed with the new logo
Encourage use of the cartoon grid as the template for Midtown bar crawls, bike rides and scavenger hunts
Check departing patrons level of inebriation by having them try to trace the logo
Bumperstickers on Humvees and Escalades: “Midtown: Get Out Of My Way”
Require barristas to draw new logo in foam on espresso drinks
Social networking to spread the buzz that we are now “Scribblemento”
T-shirts for locals: “Welcome to Midtown: Now Go Away”
Tell people the real logo will be ready soon
-Marion Millin
Tags: Branding, Business Association, Go Your Own Way, logo, MBA, Midtown, Rob Kerth, Sacramento
6 Responses to “Midtown: the Brand”
By Rick on May 5, 2010 | Reply
Thanks for explaining it all to me, Tim–I was a bit perplexed when I saw the design on the back of some of Andrea’s servers’ t-shirts at Hot Italian a couple of nights ago…
The MBA paid for this from dues, huh? Well, um, go team!
By OldManFoster on May 5, 2010 | Reply
They actually paid for it with tax dollars. As a Pbid district they get extra tax $ to promote the area.
By Jackson on May 6, 2010 | Reply
That Crayola Mondrian logo is kinda cool, although something doesn’t look right about its relationship to the “MIDTOWN” typography; I think it has to do with the shape, and the grater mass toward the middle and bottom than the top.
Also, given Sacramento’s rep as the city of trees, and its positioning as a center for sustainable development and environmental action, shouldn’t the dot representing the letter “O” be green rather than red? Just my suggestion, and opinions are like sphincters, etc., etc.
And also: “GO YOUR OWN WAY” wouldn’t be bad, except for its association with Fleetwood Mac’s ultra-pop period. Then again, since quite a few Midtown hipsters seem to be thrifting for albums and grooving to Peter Frampton and Toto these days, going with Mac is within current zeitgeistal parameters. But the tagline typography is wrong, methinx.
My suggestion: MIDTOWN: WILL YOU EVER WIN?
One final: replace the grid with that mystical circle with arrows you see on signs at Midtown roundabouts. That is all. I will shut up now.
By Jackson on May 6, 2010 | Reply
Greater, not grater. Although the unintentional cheese reference works for me. I type like a total spazz. Mea culpa.
By olivia coelho on May 7, 2010 | Reply
I thought I would just copy and paste my comment from heckasac here:
K,here’s the deal with the logo. I attend the mba meetings, the Midtown Merchant meetings, The Handle meetings. I am not a meeting person, but I am a business owner and so you have to go. My experience is that you can’t please everyone. The MBA has money to promote midtown businesses funded largely by a PBID, but before they could do anything, they needed a LOGO. My vote was to pay Mark Kaiser to just make a rad one. Well, they bid the process. I will not even say how much fucking money they spent on it. Lucy Co & Fuel Creative group worked on it, and it was really research based. Tons of work, focus groups, interviews, data went into creating it. I was on the Branding Committee and at the end of it all I really like the logo, but more than that, I am glad that A LOGO was chosen, so we can move on to the next marketing step. No matter what, you just cannot please everyone. Midtown is way too diverse for that. Let’s just roll with it people!! Next we get maps and a better website and a marketing campaign that makes Midtown a destination for people to visit and trust me, with 14 boutiques closing in just the last two years here, WE NEED IT!
Love,
Olivia
Bows & Arrows
By Marion Millin on May 7, 2010 | Reply
A “rad logo.” From the Business Association. For Midtown. Branding “the brand of Midtown. Eclectic. Hip. Vibrant.” as the chair of the Branding Committee put it. Focus groups. Research. Big (taxpayer) bucks. How “much fucking money”?
You don’t have to remember when The Bloc was Lord Beaverbrook’s to understand that corporate branding is corporate branding: it kills “Eclectic. Hip. Vibrant.”
Midtown. Go Your Own Way. Incorporated.
The other problem with identity defined by focus group and consultants — not known for their vibrant, hip, eclecticism — is that they get paid big bucks, so no one can tell them when the results are mediocre. The Emperor’s New Clothes.
Jackson’s right. The spacing is off in so many ways, in so many directions, it’s not even funny. It’s not even off in a planned way — it’s off as if anyone with Word did a random version, without finessing the typography.
It is really difficult to “fake” naive or childlike art. The crooked crayon line was a challenging concept; the execution looks stiff and phony. (Interesting to know if it was actually done by hand or on screen). This logo doesn’t flow and isn’t balanced. The slogan doesn’t make sense.
Maybe that’s the new “eclectic.”